Hot crossed buns
It sounds like the beginning of an Easter joke: what do you get when you combine a cinnamon roll with a hot cross bun? These delicious treats, is what. Nicola Galloway shows us how.
Easter weekend seems to revolve around planning and preparing sweet spiced buns for Sunday morning. The recipe below employs an overnight rise, so the buns can be shaped, risen and baked by late morning. They include flavour hints of hot cross buns with a cinnamon rollinspired construction, resulting in a light and delicately spiced crumb.
It is essential to use active or instant dried yeast for this recipe (not breadmaker yeast, such as Surebake).
The friction of the long kneading creates warmth to activate the yeast, so there is no need to warm the milk first. The dough is best made the night before baking, for a long ferment in the fridge, although they can also be made in one day by chilling the dough after the initial rise (see recipe).
You will need to use a stand mixer to sufficiently knead the dough for gluten strength.
Honey & spice Easter buns
Prep time: 30 minutes + overnight
chilling (optional) and rise time Baking time: 20-25 minutes Makes 12
Dough
220ml milk
2 eggs (size 7), beaten
2 tbsp honey, or 3 tbsp brown sugar 2 tsp (7g) active dried yeast
500g (31⁄4 cups) high-grade flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp (5g) salt
100g butter at room temperature, cut into 3cm cubes
Filling
50g butter
1 tbsp honey
1⁄4 cup (50g) brown sugar 1⁄2 cup (75g) raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
Glaze
1 tbsp honey 1 tbsp water
Put the milk, eggs, honey/sugar and yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dou1gh hook. Add the flour, spice and salt and mix on the lowest speed for 4-5 minutes, until the mixture comes together into a sticky dough.
Increase to the second speed and add the butter one cube at a time. Continue to mix for another 8-10 minutes. The dough will seem quite sticky initially but will eventually come together and pull away from the sides of the bowl – scrape down the sides as needed.
Shape the dough into a ball and place into a lightly oiled 2 litre lidded container. Secure the lid and leave to rise at room temperature for 1 hour. Then place the container in the fridge overnight (or chill for at least 1 hour to firm up if making the same day).
Make the filling. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the honey, sugar, raisins and spices. Set aside.
The next morning (or after 1 hour to chill) remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour the bench and tip out the cold dough (it is much easier to roll when it is cool).
Roll the dough out to a 25 x 40cm rectangle with the long side closest to you. Use a spatula to spread the spiced butter evenly over the dough. Starting with the long edge closest to you, firmly roll up the dough into a long log shape, then cut into 12 even pieces (about 3-4cm wide).
Place the buns cut-side down into a lined 20 x 25cm baking tray or dish. Cover with beeswax wrap or a reusable plastic bag and leave to rise in a warm position for 1-11⁄2 hours, until the buns have doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 190C. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and cooked through. Warm together the honey and water to make a glaze and brush this over the hot buns. Serve the buns warm.
Chocolate prunes
Of course, Easter wouldn’t be Easter without chocolate. I adore the combination of chocolate and prunes, so, for something a little different, I prepared some sophisticated-tasting homemade chocolates.
Melt chunks of quality dark choccy in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, or in the microwave, and deftly coat plump pitted prunes in the velvety goodness. Leave to set on a lined tray. Filling the prunes with salted peanut or almond butter before coating is an optional (and recommended) decadence.